Barack Obama Quotes

In the economy today, everybody understands that we need a well educated workforce. This is 2016. When we talk about public education, it can no longer be K through 12th grade. I do believe that public colleges and universities should be tuition free.

Every person in this country who has the desire and ability should be able to get all the education they need regardless of the income of their family. This is not a radical idea. In Germany, Scandinavia and many other countries, higher education is either free or very inexpensive. We must do the same.

I'm going to try to get everybody who makes less than $125,000 in their family, which is the vast majority of people, to be able to go to a public college or university totally tuition-free. And if you make more than that, debt-free.

Education is the gateway to the American Dream. But today our immigration laws make higher education - a virtual requirement for financial security - out of reach for more than one million undocumented students.

I would certainly look at a proposal for tuition-free community college for two years if the students kept a certain high grade-point average.

We are moving in exactly the wrong direction in higher education. Forty years ago, tuition in some of the great American public universities and colleges was virtually free. Today, the cost is unaffordable for many working class families. Higher education must be a right for all - not just wealthy families.

I want to make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for everyone else.

In Germany, college tuition is free. In America, college tuition is increasingly unaffordable. In a highly competitive global economy, which country do you think will have the best educated work force and a competitive advantage? We must make tuition free in public colleges and universities and substantially reduce interest rates on student loans.

I have a plan to make tuition debt-free for public colleges and universities.

One of the issues I'm really happy about is that recently, Secretary Clinton and I worked out an agreement on higher education, making public colleges and universities tuition free for every family in America earning less than 125,000 bucks. Didn't go as far as I wanted. But that's 83 percent of the population in this country.

Do we substantially increase military spending and prepare for endless war in the middle-east, or do we make college affordable for all Americans, regardless of income. My answer: I will soon be introducing legislation that will make public colleges and universities tuition free.

Community colleges provide higher education where people live, helping to build strong ladders of opportunity that allow people to secure a foothold in the middle class.

Michelle and I—we’re where we are today only because scholarships and student loans gave us a shot at a great education.

I do believe that education should become as close to free as possible.

So I think there's a potential to make tuition free at public universities as part as young people doing national service. I think that is the most realistic option.

Students want free education because their parents are struggling. The fees of universities and technikons are too high.

I would certainly make the attendance in college paid for, at least at a community college level or a state - you know, a sponsored university level so that if you wanted to go to college and if you had the grades - you might not go to Harvard - but you went to college.

We have got to make sure that every qualified American in this country who wants to go to college can go to college -- regardless of income.

I'm not going to let the government make a profit out of lending money for people to go to college. So we're going to really change this. I see it as an investment, not an expense, and I'm going to treat it that way.

As president, I will fight to make tuition in public colleges and universities free, as well as substantially lower interest rates on student loans.

In Mexico, a poor country, higher education is of quite good quality -- and is free. Ten years ago the government tried to impose small fees. There was a national student strike and the government backed down. High tuition is not an economic necessity, as is easy to show, but a debt trap is a good technique of indoctrination and control. And resisting this makes good sense.

We need to incentivize states across our country to spend on higher education and ensure that we go back to allowing people to go to college tuition-free.

I just believe strongly that anybody who wants to pursue additional education after high school ought to be given that chance.

I don't come from a lot, so Disney gave me the opportunity to go to college, which is great. My brother and I are some of the first in our family to ever do that.

I believe in affordable college, but I don't believe in free college, because every expert that I have talked to says, look, how will you ever control the costs.